Yay for my first Christmas craft! I hope you like it. I combined a few of my favorite craft techniques; tape resist and salt painting, and it was so much fun. First I taped on some Christmas trees with washi tape. I got this tape as my weekly gift from Alt Summit. Anyone else going? I can’t wait! The second step was to watercolor the whole paper. I recruited my girls for this task. I used liquid water color paints that were barely saturated with water. I just added a splash so the colors would be really vibrant. Gigi was able to paint the whole paper, while D painted her face more than anything else. This was one of the first times she was officially included in one of our crafts and she had a blast. It was a good reminder to me that it’s not just Gigi that can participate anymore. Let them all paint!

After the watercolor painting I brought out the “snow,” i.e. kosher salt. Thanks to my girl Lisa, one of the amazing nursery school teachers at Bay Nimoy Nursery School, who helped collaborate on this project and troubleshoot when my snow wasn’t showing up. It’s all about the KOSHER salt!) D skipped this part but Gigi was all about it. She sprinkled, dumped and mooshed snow till her hearts content.

Next we removed the tape after the watercolors dried. Tip: Start peeling from the top of the tree so you can take the tape off in one peel. If you do it from the bottom it can get kind of funky.

Lastly, we decorated our tree! You can do this with anything from googley eyes to sequins to beads or just use plain old markers. If you leave out the glue it can also be a great invitation to play. You can decorate the tree over and over. I hope you like my very first ever Christmas craft. I think I’m kind of hooked. No offense Hanukkah.

Cool! What a great project, and it’s so exciting when the little ones feel like they’re being included in the big kid projects. If there’s still room in your suitcase, I’ll squish into the other half for ALT…